Los Angeles Dodgers catching coach Steve Yeager (7), first base coach Davey Lopes, second from left, and bench coach Tim Wallach, right, workout with the team during warmups with the United States playing soccer against Ghana on the big screen prior a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies on Monday, June 16, 2014, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo)

And if the United States beats Portugal Sunday in the World Cup, we will hear, again, that it has been found.

It will be the classic overstatement.

The World Cup provides outstanding entertainment. The best part is the national pride. And the skill at soccer’s highest level is amazing, even for its many detractors in this country.

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If the Americans win a couple games, it’s a nice bonus.

Then, for the vast majority of even the most ardent sports fans in the United States, soccer will go back into the storage shed for four years until the next World Cup.

Soccer is, undoubtedly, the world’s sport, but American football is the undisputed king of the United States.

The rest of the world views soccer as the “beautiful game.” Here, it is baseball, which gives us a warm, nostalgic and fuzzy feeling.

Basketball, extraordinarily popular internationally, is our gift to the rest of the world. We are still trying to decide collectively if soccer is the rest of the world’s gift to us.

Millions of little kids play soccer annually in this country, but tend to move on to other activities and sports before they get much older.

While soccer has never been more popular in the USA, it remains relative.

It pales in comparison to its popularity world-wide, and to other major team sports in the United States.

A win over Portugal won’t change that. Maybe a very deep run into the elimination round would – to a degree. You know, like reaching the semifinals. Certainly winning it would.

But it is extremely unlikely.

The United States soccer team went to Brazil with its chances listed at 100-to-1 to win the World Cup. Their coach, Jurgen Klinsmann, raised many eyebrows when he said the USA has no chance of capturing the World Cup.

Should a longshot like that come in, that would be the story, along with a swell in national pride, not necessarily the sport.

When the Americans opened the tournament by defeating Ghana, it was widely celebrated as a pivotal triumph. It wasn’t.

The analogy I’ll use – although it is admittedly flawed – is U.S. soccer in the World Cup is akin to the Mid-American Conference entry in the NCAA basketball tournament.

Portugal is like a struggling major conference team (it was routed 4-0 in its opener by Germany). The United States has a fighting chance today, but its ceiling remains relatively low.

The USA can win game or two, and even push relatively deep into the tournament. It has done so before.

But eventually, and not before that long, Armageddon will arrive.

Traditionally on such a large stage regardless the endeavor athletically, our nation is one of the favorites.

In soccer, we are not. A lot of Americans are torn between rooting for their country or, if it is a legitimate soccer power, the nation of their ancestors.

We did experience the Miracle on Ice in 1980, as a group of our college kids upset the mighty Soviet Union at the height of its hockey power at the Winter Olympics.

The difference in the World Cup is the field of teams is so much bigger and deeper than Olympic hockey. It isn’t just a one-game shot for the Americans against greatness – like the ’80 hockey team. If the USA gets deep into the elimination round, it’d be like that every game.

I measure the difficulty of the World Cup not so much by who wins, but by who doesn’t. Look how soccer crazed they are in England? It has not won the World Cup since 1966.

Our nation isn’t geared to giving out platitudes for trying hard.

It’s about going all the way, or at least having a genuine shot at it.

The United States has hosted the World Cup. They played indoors at the Silverdome in 1994. There is still a sign on Woodward, which is noticeably faded by the sun after two decades.

It reads – “Pontiac, where the world comes to play.”

It was a great tournament. The USA tied Switzerland at the Silverdome. And beat Columbia at the Rose Bowl.

But soccer didn’t really take off like it had been anticipated in this nation two decades ago.

I’d be surprised if it is any different two decades from now.

Sunday vs. Portugal will be fun, but quickly forgotten.

The World Cup is soccer touching down briefly in this country every four years.